Day 6: Friday, 13 May 2011

We all slept great our first night on board. First thing this morning, I ran up to the sun deck to try and get some sunrise pictures, but the sun was pretty well up by the time I got there. I joined Mom, Dad and Aunt Peggy for the wonderful buffet breakfast that we would come to love. After breakfast, we divided into our 4 teams and went into Amsterdam by bus for our city tour.

Let me just say that so far, I am NOT a fan of bus tours for the simple reason that I can’t take many decent photographs through glass. It’s hard to capture castles, monuments and architectural brilliance when shooting through a window, but I did the best I could...recognizing the amount of hours I am going to have to put into editing the photos when I get home. (sigh!)

I like Amsterdam, and I’d like to come back again and spend some more time here. I think I’d rent a bike and just go exploring with a GPS or someone else to guide me, of course. (There are bikes than cars here in the Netherlands.) There is just so much to see. I love the canals. I didn’t realize there were so many in Amsterdam.

I became fascinated with the hooks hanging from the top beam of the houses. Apparently, it is used as a pulley or hoist to aid with moving people in and out of these older buildings that don’t have elevators, etc. We passed the Anne Frankstraat, and Tineke told us a bit of the history of Amsterdam during WWII. We passed several landmarks that I recognized from the Madurodam tour only the day before as well. Kinda cool to see the real thing!

The Rijksmuseum (the National Art Gallery of the Netherlands) is currently undergoing a serious renovation, and so a lot of the museum is closed to the public, but the museum wisely chose to move most of their Dutch masterworks into one gallery so that we could still visit the best of the best like Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc.

During our tour, I was assisting some of the older people in our group. I didn't want us to lose anybody since the museum was crowded, and I so I tried to keep my eyes on them and wait for them to catch up to the rest of the tour. 

I helped a couple people find and get on the elevator, but then I opted to take the stairs myself since it was crowded. Aunt Peggy was on the elevator, and apparently, several of the elderly people in our group were asking where “the girl” went. HA! So I am now known as the girl. I do believe that I am the youngest passenger on the ship. Some of the crew are definitely younger than I am, but I am definitely the baby passenger. It’s kinda nice.

We had lunch back on board the ship while the captain prepared for departure, and soon enough, we were headed along the Amsterdam Canal. We’re off. At lunch, I tried my first cold soup on the ship and fell in love instantly. It was like a smoothie you eat with a spoon. Yummy!

After lunch, I headed up to the sun deck to take more pictures. I’m fascinated by the diverse bridges we have seen thus far. So fun! And I finally got some decent shots of a windmill this afternoon. WOOHOO!!

We came upon our first set of locks that we had to go through. It was utterly fascinating! We were all totally into it. I think I was taking a photo every couple of seconds just to capture it all. We got so into it all that Dick, Audrey and I skipped the “captain’s cocktail” hour to stand up on the top deck and watch the progression. I don’t think we missed much really because we were just having so much fun watching the whole lock process. It was great fun, and I was elated at the experience. I’ve never gone through a set of locks before. (Little did I know then, that this was #1 out of 68 locks we would pass through on our way from Amsterdam to Budapest. HA!)

We all ran down to dress for dinner. Tonight is the captain’s welcome dinner, and so everyone dressed up a bit more. The whole meal was wonderful.

I managed to get a few pictures of the sun as it starting setting beyond one of the bridges. It had been a lovely day!  Mom, Dad and Aunt Peggy played Mexican Train in the library for a while, and I stayed up on the top deck visiting with Susan (from Colorado). We finally got chilled to the bone and headed inside for the night.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy:  the hunting pictures in the Rijksmuseum and seeing Vermeer’s Dutch maid painting
• Mom: the captain’s welcome dinner
• Me: spending the afternoon with Dick and Audrey on the top deck and maneuvering the ship through the first set of locks – so cool!
• FEELING: Elated!!

Day 5: Thursday, 12 May 2011

We had another early breakfast this morning since we had to be packed so early. I am going to miss the chocolate brownies and the lemon pastries for breakfast every morning. YUM!! And plus it’s kinda nice having a celebrity in the same dining room with us. Yes, Aaron Eckhart was back again this morning, and I just smiled quietly to myself.

Soon we were off – all 31 of us headed out by bus for Amsterdam with multiple stops along the way. We were soon in the Netherlands, and we were all eager to catch pictures of windmills, but the original windmills are harder to find these days. We only managed to see a couple of them on our drive.

We had a fancy lunch at the seaside Kurhaus Hotel in Scheveningen, which is on the North Sea. After lunch, we walked outside to catch sight of the North Sea. It was windy and a bit chilly along the seashore, but it was also beautiful.

Next, we drove a short distance to the Madurodam, which has hundreds of miniature replicas of the Netherlands’ landmarks like castles, churches, windmills, and other area attractions and places of significance in this country. There just was so much to see in such a limited amount of time. I think we had a little more than an hour to see it all, and it was next to impossible. It was completely fascinating.

Aat told us stories on the drive. I loved hearing him talk and share his life’s stories. He grew up in the Netherlands during World War II and was originally from Rotterdam. The winter of 1945 was brutally cold and food was scarce, and the people were forced to eat tulip bulbs to survive. His advice: don’t eat tulip bulbs. No matter how you fix them, they taste awful!

We finally arrived in Amsterdam and drove through part of the city to get to the place where the boat was docked. I’m so excited to finally board the boat. Our cabin (301) is near the end of the hall. Mom and Dad are just down the hall in 305. The rooms are perhaps a bit smaller than I imagined, but I think it’s all gonna work out. There are drawers and a closet to store clothes and to stash our unpacked suitcases. The bathroom is small, but it has everything we’ll need. The beds fold up for storage so that we have mini couches to sit on in the day time.

There was a letter in our cabin warning us of a recent virus development along the river. Any passenger who comes down with the symptoms (vomiting and/or diarrhea) should report it to the reception desk and take precautions not to infect others (isolation until the symptoms cease). Uh-oh!! L

Soon after boarding, we had a welcome meeting and learned that we would be divided into 4 color groups and assigned to a program manager for the duration of the trip. We are on the YELLOW team, and so Tineke will be our program manager for the next couple of weeks. We learned that many of our co-travelers from Brussels are also in the yellow group such as Dick and Audrey, George and Marilyn, etc. So it sounds like we’ll have a great group!  We also got to meet Captain Roger Spoor, Ben (the hotel manager) and Gingus (the restaurant manager) for the first time.  

After our meeting, we headed up to the dining room for dinner. We ate with Susan and Gladys. We had a pleasant first meal onboard with 4 courses: the appetizer, soup, entrée and dessert. I have decided to take photos of our food (as often as I remember to do so) to keep track of what we eat, how it is presented and perhaps to help me remember what I enjoyed or really didn’t care for, etc.

Mom and I did a bit of exploring around the boat, and then Aunt Peggy came and found us. I spent quite a bit of time up on the sun deck taking pictures of the surroundings. I fell in love with a massive sailboat that was docked near our ship. Hmmmm...maybe I will try sailing some day as well!

We are going to be docked here until tomorrow afternoon I think, and then we will finally be heading out on the Amsterdam canal towards the Rhine River.

WOW! It’s been quite a day. I’m tired, but I’m also hyped up. I hope we all sleep well.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy: finally getting on the boat
• Mom: Madurodam
• Me: Madurodam – I loved those mini structures, but I was sad we didn’t have more time with them!
• FEELING: Hyper!  

Day 4: Wednesday, 11 May 2011

We had breakfast early this morning since we need to catch a train to Maastricht, Holland at 9:24 AM. We are all rather excited about the prospect of today’s cemetery visit.

I noticed a man that was having breakfast in our section this morning. He was not clean shaven and was dressed casually in khakis, a blue t-shirt and sneakers, and there was something oddly familiar about him. I tried to work it out in my head, and then it suddenly hit me. He was Aaron Eckhart, an American actor. I’ve seen several of his films, and there he was having breakfast a few feet away from us and reading the Wall Street Journal with reading glasses. HA! It’s a small world.

Aunt Peggy wanted to know why I wouldn't go up to him and introduce myself, but that just isn’t my style. He’s here, perhaps on a holiday of his own. He’s staying in our hotel, and he has the right to his privacy just like we do. I’d just rather leave him in peace and let him enjoy Brussels without being another annoying fan.

We caught a taxi to the Brussels Midi station, and caught our train from there. The train ride was about an hour and a half with multiple stops along the way. Once we got to Maastricht, a kind lady helped us find the right bus line to Margraten, and soon we had roundtrip bus tickets and were on our way. The driver dropped us off at the cemetery gates.

We walked up the driveway to the cemetery, admiring the manicured lawns and the lovely rhododendrons. We took some pictures with the flowers before heading to the first building. It all quickly became emotional for all of us. It was the map room, where the path of both the allies and the Nazis was tracked all over Europe. And there was “Oppenheim” where Grandpa Waeiss crossed the Rhine River into Germany. It was something he wrote about in one of his last letters to Grandma back in Michigan. He and another man were the only survivors in their boat of that crossing. Their boat was hit by enemy fire and all but 2 men perished.

Mom was visibly shaken and moved, and she was crying. It was heart-wrenching, and it was making me cry, too, as I watched her struggle with her grief at the loss of a father she never really knew. I stayed with Mom and just let her take her time with it all.

Next we went to the visitors’ center to look up Grandpa’s plot in the book. While I was looking, I noticed a large orange rose floral spray there on the counter, and it had the name “Harold L. Weiss” on it (yes, they had his last name spelled wrong). A man in the office behind the desk came out and saw Dad and me looking at the flowers, and he asked if we were the Bradleys, and then he made a call. Soon a kind American named “Richard” arrived and was amazingly gentle and gracious.

Richard told us all about the cemetery, the history and the care that each grave receives. Families in Holland adopt a grave or graves, and they bring flowers on special occasions and give attention to each of the 8,301 fallen soldiers at Margraten. There is even a possibility that we can try to contact the family that has adopted Grandpa’s grave. I think that would be a nice gesture to connect with those that visit his grave more frequently than we can.

Richard walked us to the row where Grandpa was buried, and then he let Mom and Aunt Peggy find Grandpa’s headstone on their own. Then he had Mom rub sand into the grave marker so that Grandpa’s name would show up better. Mom then placed the floral spray on the ground in front, and we proceeded to take pictures – many of which Richard took for us. He stayed with us at the grave for a good 30 minutes, and then he left us for some private time on our own and simply asked us to check in with him at the desk before we left.  

We stayed at the grave side for quite a while. It was a sweet few moments. We were mostly silent. I took a video of the surroundings, and I asked everyone not to talk for a minute or two. I later watched the video and noted that everyone was quiet and didn’t say a word. BUT if you listen closely, you can softly hear a little barking noise every once in a while. Aunt Peggy’s camera barks rather than clicks when the shutter is pressed. HA!

We walked around some more and visited the small chapel behind the memorial fountain as well. We waited outside the cemetery gates for the return bus ride back to Maastricht. We took the train made to Brussels Midi station and then a cab back to the hotel to drop our stuff off and get ready for dinner.

We were all pretty tired after our long day, but we opted to walk walked down Avenue Louise one more time and visit a “Quick Burger” for dinner. We finished up our dining with some ice cream at Haagen-Daas for dessert, too.

We went back to the hotel and started packing up. We need to have our suitcases in the hall by 7:30 AM for the bus ride that will take us to Amsterdam where we connect with our cruise.

It had been quite an amazing day, full of emotions and yet delightful all the same.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy: gravesite and surprise of flowers; “being with my beloved family”
• Mom: gravesite and surprise of flowers; train ride
• Dad: gravesite and surprise of flowers
• Me: gravesite; learning of the kindness of the people in the Netherlands and of their tender care of the graves (adopting fallen soldiers), etc.
• FEELING: Gratitude!!

Day 3: Tuesday, 10 May 2011

We had breakfast in the hotel. Lots of good stuff to choose from the buffet, and there is plenty of it. There are also a lot of odd things like sushi, salads, etc. Not sure who eats stuff like that for breakfast. I think I’ll stick with my bacon and eggs and enjoy the pastries as well. I did see that they had baked beans available, which was reminiscent of England for me. (sigh!)

At 9 AM, the Brussels Vantage group all piled into a bus and went on a city tour with Catty. Our drive started out with rain, which was disappointing. It’s hard to take pictures through a bus window, but it’s even more difficult when it is raining…but I still managed to take a few shots.

We drove past the NATO headquarters again on our drive. Brussels is home to the headquarters of both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

We stopped at the Atomium for pictures. It is a model of the atom, which was constructed for the 1958 World’s Fair, and the people of Brussels liked it so much that they left it standing.

We also drove by the official royal palace, which is in the heart of the city, but the royal family does not live there. The building is merely used for royal affairs such as visits from other heads of state, official royal functions, etc.

We stopped at theTriumphal Arch in the Parc du Cinquantenaire for more photo opportunities. We stopped near the Manneken Pis and walked to visit the statue of the little boy peeing into a fountain. It is a very small sculpture. Seriously, if you didn’t know where it was, it would be easy to walk right by and miss it.

We then walked to the famous La Grand-Place (or Grand Place). It is really an amazing square full of old 16th and 17th century buildings. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is spectacular. The architecture is lovely, and the gilded buildings are quite amazing to see. I was delighted to learn that Victor Hugo once lived in one of the upper floor rooms above the café with the red awning (Neuhaus) for 7 months during his political exile from France in 1852.

My Mom and I went to the Brussels Expo, which was hosting the King Tut exhibit – the same exhibit I had missed while it was at the Children’s Museum in Indy. I wasn’t sure if Mom would enjoy the exhibit or not, but I should have realized that since I am my Mother’s daughter, she would love it as well. We both love museums!!

Once we had our tickets in hand, it only then occurred to me that the exhibit might not be in English. We walked in and discovered that it was not in English, BUT our ticket price included English headsets, and so we were well able to go through the exhibit, and when we had questions, my rough French came in handy. HA! 

I was delighted that I could take pictures without flash in the exhibit as well. YAY! I loved that. The exhibit showcased the discovery of the tomb, and then had displays set up with the items exactly as they were found in the tomb. The golden sarcophagus and the mask were more beautiful than I had imagined them. And most of the items were not encased in glass, but just neatly displayed on platforms. It felt surreal.

After our ice cream dinner, we took a walk to the Palais de Justice and captured some nice shots of the city below. It was a deliciously cool evening after a warm, hot day in Brussels.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy: collecting (aka pilfering or stealing) Meli chocolate from the breakfast buffet
• Mom: the King Tut exhibit and our contrasting taxi rides to and from the exhibit
• Dad: the Market Square or La Grand Place
• Me: the King Tut exhibit, finally emerging from the subway, discovering later on that Louise was the right subway station after all, and getting to practice my French with Catty and at the Tut exhibit
• FEELING: Exhilarated

Day 2: Monday, 9 May 2011

We got to Brussels around 8:50 AM. My first view of Brussels was a good one. I snapped a few photos promptly. It seems to be a fairly clean city, and the Conrad Hotel is right in the heart of the upscale shopping district, Avenue Louise. We were able to check-in immediately with Aat (a Vantage representative) and headed directly to our room. There was a bit of a hiccup at first. They had me and my Dad rooming together, which just wasn’t gonna work, and so we had some serious room switching to do!  

I figured out the converter and adapters to plug things in without issue, and I charged up a camera battery without incident before lunch. Later that afternoon, Aunt Peggy tried to heat up her flat iron. A few minutes later I smelled a funny smell, and then a minute later there was a pop noise, and smoke started coming out of her adapter/converter. I pulled it out of the wall quickly, but it continued to smoke. I was really glad that we had the windows open because it smoked for several minutes after that.

At 4 PM, we met the rest of the Brussels group for a vicinity walk. Aat took us around a few of the blocks closest to our hotel to give us a lay of the land, so to speak. We had some time to kill before our welcome briefing and dinner, and so we took more pictures and explored the hotel. Mom and Dad have an awesome balcony view, and so I took pictures of Mom and Dad posing from their balcony from the awesome courtyard below.

At 6 PM, we had our welcome briefing followed by dinner at the Wiltshire Restaurant in the hotel. We met some interesting people at our table. We headed up to our room soon after dinner and headed straight to bed. Exhaustion is real!!

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy: multiple calls and trips down to the concierge and hotel reception desk
• Mom: meeting interesting people at dinner, taking the walking tour, intrigued that everything is so close with the tiny narrow busy streets, likes the cafes in the alleys
• Dad: tiny, crowded streets
• Me: meeting George and Marilyn, room-switching drama
• FEELING: Exhausted but excited at what the rest of the trip holds for us!

Day 1: Sunday, 8 May 2011

I slept almost 7 hours and woke up ready to go. WOOHOO!! Today is Mothers' Day! I love my Mom, and I'm excited that we'll get so much time together over these next few weeks.

Barb Saberson picked us up and shuttled us to the airport. She’s amazing, and I’m so grateful to her! Love ya, Barb!

We made our way through check-in and security without any issues. And our first flight to Atlanta was pretty short and sweet, but then we had a 3-hour layover in Atlanta. So we had some lunch and hung out at our gate for a while. The Atlanta airport is so big that you have to take a train to get from terminal to terminal. It’s like an airport subway similar to what Heathrow has. Someone told us that: “Everyone has to go through Atlanta. Even when you die, you have to stop here.” I believe it!

While we waited for our flight to Brussels, I asked each of us to state what we were most looking forward to on this trip. The first thing we all said was the graveside visit to Margraten. It is after all the reason we started to plan this excursion, and so it is foremost in our mind.

• Aunt Peggy: Czech Republic – it was Susan’s favorite stop on her European trip
• Mom: seeing castles
• Dad: seeing castles and eating chocolate
• Me: Schönbrunn Palace

Just the Little Stuff

I can fully identify with Francesca Battistelli’s song This is the Stuff. I had a weekend full of little things that just kept adding up and annoying the heck out of me. It was one of those weekends where I seemed to have misplaced my sense of humor and struggled to find it again.

• The water from my shower/tub leaked into the apartment below it. Not a big deal. I didn’t have to do anything about it, but maintenance showed up for the 20-minute repairs while I was in the middle of doing my hair for the day and getting ready to head to Kokomo. Don’t laugh, but I’m one of those crazy people that has a hair timing issue. I have to blow dry my hair while it is still wet and then quickly iron it straight, etc. If I get interrupted and can’t finish it all at the same time, I just need to put my head under the faucet, wet my hair and start over. HA! So, I was not in a good mood when maintenance left me.
• Then I got overheated in my own apartment. I don’t do well in the heat, and for some reason my apartment was not cooling off fast enough for me this weekend. It didn’t matter that it was much cooler inside my place than it was outside. I just wanted to stop the sweat from running down my face while I was trying to clean up my kitchen. I was vexed and irritated with the temperature, which didn’t help cool me down any either.
• My cell phone died suddenly and without warning on Saturday night. There was no fanfare, no desperate last breath, it just faded out into oblivion. One minute it was working just fine, and the next minute, it had flat-lined. I tried basic phone CPR, but to no avail. So Sunday morning after church, I rushed to Verizon Wireless in hopes that it was a battery or a bad SIM card, but no such luck. They tried to revive my phone with some extensive life support methods but to no avail. My phone was no longer with us. So today, a replacement phone will be shipping out to me, and they hope it will arrive for me some time tomorrow. Fingers crossed! My phone is my life line...
• I stubbed my toe on my bed while I was rushing around on Sunday. Why is it that a stubbed toe is like the worst pain ever? I limped around for several minutes after that. Later on the same day, I brought in a box from the car and was attempting to not slam the apartment door, and somehow, I managed to shut my finger in my apartment door. OK, that pain sure topped the stubbed toe. I said a few choice words, ranted and raved to tears for a few minutes, and only then did I finally sit down and laugh at myself.

I’m not sure that this was the worst weekend ever. I mean in reality, it wasn’t really that bad, I guess. But I sure am glad that this weekend is over. Here’s to a better week ahead. Or perhaps I should just be praying for the strength and stamina to deal with any pending drama ahead!

My Nomadic Spirit

Travel is like a drug to me. The more I see of the world, the more I want to experience more and more.

Coming back to my life in Indiana after nearly 3 weeks in Europe has been quite hard on me personally. I’ve been living all week on the highs of my recent travel, and I’m just now crashing back down from that peak.

I can’t complain about my life here in the Hoosier state. It's good! After all, I have my sister and her family who live an hour away from me and offer me family bonding time, plenty of adventures and loads of laughs. I have amazing friends nearby who enjoy cultural events, exploring the city and planning weekend get-aways. I have a pretty good job with fabulous co-workers who help keep the daily grind fun. I have my Fridays off to explore the many parks and gardens, the museums and memorials that Indianapolis has to offer. I am truly blessed, and I know it.

But somehow, none of that seems good enough right now. My soul won’t be quite so easily soothed. My nomadic spirit is awake once more, and I am restless. Something is off, not quite right. I’m here, but I’m not.

I think I’ve left pieces of myself along the Rhine and Danube.

Brandon Heath: Leaving Eden

I finally downloaded Brandon Heath 's newest album, Leaving Eden, this week and found it rather catchy. One could argue that it is perhaps not his strongest album to date, but it's still really good, and I am enjoying it. 4 stars from me!!

It is $5 on Amazon at the present. Check it out.

P.S. I'm sharing a slightly cheese YouTube video of the song and lyrics below. Enjoy!

Jane Eyre: Not Quite Transfixed

I wanted to love this latest film version of Jane Eyre. I really did. But I recognize that I probably walked into the theatre with overly HIGH expectations.

·     Jane Eyre is my favorite book of all time. There may still be a book or two out there or one yet to be written that will challenge this ranking, but until then, Jane Eyre sits on top.

·     I first saw a preview for this film months ago, and the hype has been building in my head ever since. I have mentally been preparing to see yet another take on this my favorite text.

·     And then there was a delay in seeing the film because it was not widely released. I had to wait 3 weeks until it came to Indiana. (Oh the agony!) The delay only mounted my suspense and eagerness.  

·     I like the actor playing the male lead role of Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester. Michael Fassbender, a German-born Irish actor, has been on my radar ever since Hex. Don’t judge me. Fact: I have a thing for the supernatural. It is what it is.

·     I watched several film clips online times before I got to see the film in its entirety. The clips (like this one) mesmerized me and gave me hope. (Sigh!)

Alas, it was a false hope, and the film did not deliver.

1.    The sparkling chemistry between the lead roles in the film clip (like the one linked above) WAS the extent of the passion in the period film. Thus just watching the clips would have provided me with the best of. So sad!

2.    Some of my favorite lines and scenes in the book were ignored or twisted into unrecognizable dialogue.

3.    I found the LOST-esque visits between Jane in the present and Jane in the past to be rather wobbly and dizzying. I started to wonder if Mrs. Rochester would appear as a smoke monster in this version? It might have actually worked, too, and then that would have been something to talk about.

4.    I dislike the taint of 21st century ideals on 19th century literature. Everyone seems keen to portray Jane as an early feminist, as if that was the author’s sole intent with this work of fiction. I recognize that Charlotte Brontë isn’t here to confirm or deny any such theories. Personally, I have always read Jane Eyre as a love story, but call it feminist rhetoric if it pleases you.

When I left the theatre, I was disappointed. I had wanted so much more from this film. But honestly, I will probably relent a bit and feel less strongly about it upon further acquaintance. In due course, I’ll buy the DVD and add it to my collection because I’ll need it to complete my set, of course. In a year or two, I will find more merits within the piece that will partially redeem it. And eventually, another film will spring up and cause me to delight in this 2011 version even more.

Call me fickle, but I rather see it as my dwindling expectations. Perhaps, I’ll expect less the next time.